The Mortenson Center for International Library Programs and the American Library Association invite you to the Project Welcome: Libraries Serving Refugees and Asylum Seekers Summit on February 6, 2017 in Chicago.

Website: https://publish.illinois.edu/projectwelcome/

– Program –
Join us for an opportunity to learn about and contribute to the development of national recommendations and an action plan on information resources, services, training, and research needed to support the resettlement and integration of refugees and asylum seekers in the United States.

The meeting will feature presentations and discussions with 15 Thought Leaders from national and international libraries, international and national governmental agencies, and national resettlement and social services. Posters, presented by researchers, librarians, and program administrators, will explore best practices and research, including the information needs of refugees and asylum seekers, as well as the library services needed to support and empower them in their resettlement and integration process.

For more information on the program and speakers, visit:
https://publish.illinois.edu/projectwelcome/summit/program/
– Registration –
The deadline for registration is 27 January 2017. Registration is $200 USD, which includes light breakfast, breaks, and lunch. To register, visit:
https://my.library.illinois.edu/ProjectWelcome
Limited space is available for posters. Please read the extended call at:
https://publish.illinois.edu/projectwelcome/summit/call-for-posters/
– More Information –
For more information on the Summit and Project Welcome, a one-year IMLS-funded (LG-82-16-0059-16) planning grant (May 2016 – April 2017),
visit: https://publish.illinois.edu/projectwelcome/
Project Coordinators: Clara M. Chu and Susan Schnuer, Mortenson Center for International Library Programs Project Partners: Michael Dowling and Jody Gray, American Library Association

The past three months since my last report have been full of HSLI committee business. As conference planning chair, most of my time has gone into meeting planning. The committee has put together a great program and made extra efforts to reach out to non-HSLI members. We did attract some non-members this year, so please be sure to tell your colleagues outside of HSLI about what HSLI meetings have to offer.

I am very pleased to have three student interns from the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign participating in conference planning and attending the meeting. Please be sure to introduce yourself to Nicole, Rachel, and Taylor if you are attending the conference.

Daneen and I are working on the 2015 conference in Peoria, A Library State of Mind. This is a joint meeting of all Illinois library associations and should be an excellent opportunity to expose more Illinois librarians to HSLI. If you want to join the conference planning committee, please contact me or Daneen.
As a member of the ad hoc Helen Knoll Jira Scholarship committee I worked with Daneen Richardson and Dianne Olson to set up an investment account for the fund through Vanguard. Through the generous donations of HSLI members and the dividends paid to the fund we hope that the fund will soon generate enough income that we will be able to begin offering awards for graduate study in library science and allied fields. Information on a bylaws amendment to make the Helen Knoll Jira Scholarship Committee a standing HSLI committee will be distributed at the Business Meeting on Friday and also to the HSLI Newsletter and Listserv. After the 30 day comment period, we will hold a vote on the question of amending the HSLI Bylaws to add the committee.

Those of you attending the conference will have a chance to purchase an HSLI shirt. Shirts are available in unisex short sleeve, ladies’ long sleeve, and men’s long sleeve. Stop by the table at Nancy’s reception to purchase a shirt. Short sleeve is $15.00, long sleeve $20.00. I hope that everyone will wear these shirts often to raise awareness for HSLI.

With the upcoming retirement of Rhona Kelly, I have appointed Laura Wimmer to serve as a new Regional Advisory Committee representative. I know Laura will clearly present the issues affecting Illinois hospital libraries. Arlis Dittmer has also recently retired and a replacement for her RAC position will be appointed soon.
The Midwest Chapter MLA has changed their procedures for appointing state liaisons, and we are waiting to see who will be appointed. If you are an active Midwest Chapter member and interested in being included in the selection pool as the HSLI liaison, please contact Mary Hitchcock, mhitchcock@library.wisc.edu.

On March 20, 2014, HSLI sponsored the CE class “Measuring What Matters to Stakeholders” as a pre-conference to the Illinois Association of College and Research Libraries conference. The session sparked a lively discussion between academic and hospital libraries about what to assess, how to assess it, and how to effectively communicate assessment results. The class was taught by Ruth Holst, Associate Director of the Greater Midwest Region, NN/LM.

Both academic and hospital librarians at the session reported being under pressure from administration to prove their value to the organization. Hospital librarians mentioned several recent library closures, underscoring the critical importance of stakeholder support to the survival of the library. Academic librarians spoke about campus wide initiatives to cut expenses. These cost-cutting measures do not exclude the library, and concerns were raised on how to protect vital services.

The first part of the class covered understanding the mission of the institution and making sure what the library does supports the institutional mission. Applying this perspective to assessment, hospital libraries need to find measures that show how the library supports patient care. Academic libraries need measures that show how the library affects student learning.

In addition to assessment to show value, librarians should also conduct assessment for service quality improvement. One unique idea discussed was recording bibliographic instruction sessions and sharing them with students after the class. This allows the students to review the material covered, and also allows the librarian to review his or her teaching. Another tool discussed that is of value for both internal quality assessment and for showing value was Gimlet (http://gimlet.us/). Gimlet is a comprehensive reference service tracking system that provides statistics on the usage of reference services, questions answered per staff member, time spent per question, and many other metrics.

Usage statistics are helpful in demonstrating library activities, but these implicit measures do not always fully illustrate how the library helps the institution meet its goals. One method discussed to assess explicit value was to interview users about a “critical incident of use.” As an examples of this technique, an instructor would be asked to describe a time when they used the library with a student and then describe what changed in the student’s work or practices as a result of using the library. In a health care setting, a practitioner would describe a time when using library services resulted in a change to the care a patient received. Another example is to try to capture a time when the library had prevented an adverse event. In an academic setting, this could be asking students to describe a time when using the library saved them from performing poorly on an assignment.

Dashboards quickly condense information about the library in an easy to read format. Being able to quickly and effectively present information about the value of the library to stakeholders is vitally important. Since opportunities to show the value of your library can happen unexpectedly, Ruth recommended that all librarians have an “elevator speech” prepared. The elevator speech condenses vital information about the importance of your library to meeting institutional goals into a short statement that can be delivered in the time it takes to take an elevator ride. With a speech prepared and rehearsed, the next time you find yourself in an elevator with your director, dean, vice president, or other administrator you will be ready to tell him or her how your library supports your institution.

Happy National Medical Librarians Month! I was wonderful to see so many of you at the Midwest Chapter/HSLI joint conference in East Peoria. Thanks to the 2013 conference planning committee for putting together a great event. Be sure to read Michael Wold’s article on the conference in the HSLI Newsletter and keep an eye out for more articles from our scholarship winners.

I extend my congratulations to Starfish Thrower Award winners Roy Jones and Deborah Rhue. They both have worked very hard for HSLI this year.

There are several new stories posted in the HSLI Newsletter this month. Don’t miss the article on the HSLI Helen Knoll Jira Scholarship. This generous and thoughtful gift has been given to HSLI to support education for Illinois health sciences librarians. If you are interested in helping with the establishment of the endowment fund, please contact me.

Sarah Houghton, the plenary speaker at the conference this year, had many important things to say about change, realistic expectations, and running a library. She also had some important observations on how public libraries and health sciences libraries interact. Mainly, be sure the public libraries in your area know that you and your library exist. There are many great opportunities for public and health sciences libraries to work together, but a dialog has to be opened first. So please reach out to your neighboring libraries, let them know what you have to offer and see what services they can offer you.

Communities Matter is the theme for National Library Week 2013, and I want to thank all HSLI members for being part of our Illinois library community. As a community, we are stronger than as individuals. As a community, we support each other, celebrate the good times, and offer support in the hard times. As a thriving and active community, we can learn and prosper.

Communication is key in any community, and I want you all to share your news with our HSLI newsletter. If you have changed positions, have new duties, or want to share news about a new project, please send a note to our newsletter editors Beth Robb and Joyce Pallinger so that they can post your story to the Newsletter. To our members that are planning to retiring or leaving the area, please share the news with our HSLI community know so that we can extend our good wishes to you.

If you have a problem or question, the HSLI listserv always available to connect you with help. I am proud of the wide range of experience and talent represented in our HSLI membership, and connecting with our shared wealth of knowledge though the listserv is an important benefit of belonging to the HSLI community. Although many of us work in single person libraries, you are not alone – you have a strong community of colleagues ready to offer support.

Thank you all for being a members of the HSLI community, and I wish you all a very happy National Library Week.

Spring has finally sprung, and we are surrounded by new growth and freshness. You will also notice that the HSLI website has a fresh new look. Whether you monitor is big or small, the HSLI website will be front and center and ready to provide you with information. While all the information form the old site design is still available, in some cases page titles have changed to be better reflect the content of the page. If you are having trouble finding anything on the site, please let me know!

On the Member Resources and Forms page, you will find a link to the Digital Camera Loan Request Form. As announced in February, HSLI members can check out the digital video camera for video projects in their libraries. Video is a powerful tool for reaching out to distant library users, documenting your library’s history, and capturing workflows for training. Recording testimonials from satisfied users is a great way to show the value of your library and tell the story of how your library is making a difference.
My goal for this year is to spread the word about HSLI to more Illinois librarians. As part of this outreach effort, Jacqueline Leskovec, Daneen Richardson and I will present a program titled “Health Information for the Public: Resources, Services, and Sparking Relationships” at the Illinois Library Association meeting this October in Chicago. We hope many Illinois librarians will learn about all that the National Library of Medicine, Greater Midwest Region, and HSLI have to offer through this presentation. I am also in contact with the Steering Committee for the One for All Conference planned for 2016. The All For One Conference is planned to be a gathering of all library organizations in Illinois. I will keep you all updated as more information about this unique new event becomes available.

Saving the best for last, please spread the word about the 2013 Midwest Chapter MLA / HSLI joint meeting in East Peoria! We have an exciting schedule of activities planned with nationally known speakers Michelle Kraft and Sarah Houghton. Please make you hotel reservations and prepare to Navigate a River of Information!

HSLI membership has a great new benefit! Members can check out a digital video camera to create library promotional videos, training videos, or to document library activities. Video is a great way to share your story with the world or to show your users what your library has to offer.

The camera can be checked out for 14 days. Members are responsible for return shipping charges when returning the camera.

The camera is very easy to use. Simply point and shoot, then download the video to your computer with the camera’s built-in USB connector.

To request the camera, download the Camera Request Form and email it to Stacey Knight-Davis at slknight@eiu.edu.

The summer of 2012 is one for the record books indeed. Last summer, HSLI presented a Consumer Health Education resources class for public librarians at LaSalle Public Library after the board meeting. Encouraged by the attendance of the event last summer, HSLI sponsored a MLA CE “Disasters in an International Context” before the semiannual Board Meeting at SIUSM, Springfield on July 10. The board members met at SIUSM in Springfield and at Resurrection Medical Center, Chicago, or by teleconference call after the MLA CE. By teleconferencing the board meeting we almost achieved perfect attendance. Our President-Elect, Stacey Knight-Davis delivered a baby boy, Lucian on July 3. Congratulations to the proud parents! In this report, some recent activities and follow-ups will announce our progress so far this year.

Action: The future of Open Access task force is examining the role of hospital libraries in creating digital repositories. A survey to assess open access and scholarly publishing views to members, hospitals, and physicians is planned to determine interest and contributions to maintenance costs. Discussions of the growth and development of Open Access should be ongoing to monitor trends and application to our organization. During October, National Medical Librarians month would be a perfect opportunity to promote Open Access educational events.

An idea about promoting involvement of new members in committee work was discussed by the board. In the future, recipients of the Syed Magrabi scholarship should be invited to serve on the conference planning committee.

Announcements: Holly Ann Burt, GMR, announced that they are recruiting a Technology Coordinator and that Max Anderson, previous Technology Coordinator will be missed. The group purchasing options were presented by Virginia Gale. If any hospital library is unfamiliar with group purchasing, I would suggest contacting Virginia to learn about the advantages. Thanks to her for working with EBSCO and OVID this year. Dianne Olson, treasurer, reported that our 501 (c) (3) non-profit status was reinstated for our organization.

Appointments: Two changes of appointments occurred in 2012. Linda Feinberg is the current HSLI list moderator. Please contact Linda with any change of email address requests. Daneen Richardson was appointed as the new Midwest/MLA liaison. Since HSLI is hosting the Midwest/MLA conference in 2013, we look forward to increasing our communication with Midwest. GMR and HSLI will share an exhibit booth at ILA.

Archives: Progress in organizing the HSLI archives was reported by Miranda Shake, archives chair. The UIUC archive staff is locating our original contract and an inventory of the contents of the files is under development.

Conferences: The Board received updates for three Annual Conferences. The final report for 2011 was given by Virginia Gale, conference chair. Laura Wimmer, current conference chair, opened registration for the 2012 annual conference, “Shaping Our Future”, to be held November 1-2 at the Spring Hill Suites Chicago O’Hare, 8101 West Higgins Road Chicago, Illinois 60631. The continuing education classes will be conducted at Resurrection Medical Center’s Marian Conference Center, 7435 W Talcott Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60631. A shuttle bus is available for transportation between the Hotel and Hospital. Nancy’s Reception will be held at the Hotel complete with poster session and vendors. The Syed Magrabi scholarship is open to attend this conference. Roy Jones, conference coordinator of the joint Midwest. /MLA conference reported that the planning for, “Navigating a River of Information” to be held in East Peoria in 2013 is underway.

Illinois State Library report: Representatives from the Illinois State Library, Anne Craig, Director and Kathy Bloomberg, Associate Director attended the Board meeting and reported on the RFP progress of the statewide delivery contracts and competitive grants including the popular ILEADU.

Lastly, I would like to wish two of our members a happy retirement. Joy Kennedy and Carol Scherrer entered retirement in 2012. I am looking forward to seeing everyone, networking, and shaping the future at the fall conference.

HSLI President, Fran Kovach, M.L.I.S, is the reference and education librarian at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine.

What a mild Illinois winter this year, and the spring season is here to greet us!

Next week, during National Library Week, April 8-14 we have opportunities to demonstrate the value of libraries in our institutions and communities. If you need ideas for your event please read “How to Plan a Special Event to Promote the Library” By Kennedy, Joy C. Journal of Hospital Librarianship, 11 3 : 261—268. This article is listed in the HSLI member publications section, http://hsli.org/publications/index.shtml on our website. If you have any recent publications, paper or poster presentations to add to the bibliography, please contact Stacey Knight-Davis at cfslk@eiu.edu.

Illinois Library Day is an advocacy effort of the Illinois Library Association to meet with legislators to convey the value of having libraries in the community. This year, our legislative committee co-chairs, Michael Wold and Eric A. Edwards are participating in Illinois Library Day, April 18 in Springfield. For the last two years during Illinois Snapshot Day, data was collected to show the value of libraries making an impact in our communities and institutions. Informing lawmakers of our value helped with funding libraries.

In the ongoing theme of making a compelling argument for the value of your library, the Metropolitan Detroit Medical Library Group (MDMLG) published Reports and Statistics: Communicating the Value of Hospital Libraries and Let’s Get Visible: Marketing the Medical Library. Never before have librarians and information professionals been more important than now.

HSLI President, Fran Kovach, M.L.I.S, is the reference and education librarian at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine.

At the beginning of the year, not only is it time to pay our professional dues and start thinking about taxes, we must plan for the year ahead or even perhaps the next coming years. We also may recollect the adventures over the past year.

Thanks are given to our conference co-chairs, Virginia Gale and Linda Feinberg, and the committee for organizing a stellar conference at Starved Rock State Park. “Opportunities to Reach, Balance, Achieve. Doing Better What We Have Always Done Well” was the keynote address by Michelynn McKnight, PhD, AHIP. In her address, she challenged us to engage in critical thinking and risk taking. Please visit http:// hsli.org/conference for an outline of her keynote address. Updates followed by Jacqueline Leskovec, Outreach and Evaluation Coordinator for the National Network of Libraries of Medicine Greater Midwest Region (NN/LM GMR) who relayed new developments from the NN/LM GMR. We were fortunate this year to have Anne B. Craig, Director of the Illinois State Library, join us at Starved Rock with the state library report. Three CEs were offered at the conference this year. Thanks to Michelynn McKnight, Max Anderson, NN/LM GMR, Linda O’Dwyer and Michelle Frisque, both of Galter Health Sciences Library, Northwestern University for their expertise! To all of our sponsors and exhibitors, thank you for your participation and support of the conference.

The Extinction Timeline 1950-2050 created by What’s Next and Future Exploration Network predicts the end of things, such as, the end of landline phones in the yeare2011. Also, in fine print, are words that state not to be taken too seriously. Seriously enough, post offices and libraries are on the extinction list for 2019. Fifty-eight percent of the librarians are expected to retire in 2019. Postal retirements have brought closure to post offices in communities. Not to follow suit of this trend, health science and hospital libraries can take measures to remain off the extinction list. Information professionals can proactively align with the mission of parent institutes, advance the Open Access (OA) movement by educating decision makers, contribute to patient safety by revisiting our health literacy roles, and keep technologically savvy with the continuing landscape of mobility options. Taking part in our upcoming conference in 2012 will offer information professionals the opportunity to obtain the skills needed in the future.